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Start writing poetry, today

Join us in reading, writing, editing and translating poetry, in year-long courses, short courses, workshops, one-day sessions, seminars, tutorials and every variety of learning in between – in our classrooms, off site and online.

For more information and FAQs about how our courses work, please go to our In-Person Courses, Video Courses and Online Courses pages.

All our Courses

New Territories: An Intermediate-Advanced Workshop with Wayne Holloway-Smith

£220.00 *

Tutor: Wayne Holloway-Smith

New Territories: An Intermediate-Advanced Workshop with Wayne Holloway-Smith

Bring your writing to the next level and explore contemporary poetry’s cutting-edge.

Start Date: January 21, 2025 6.45pm
End Date: March 25, 2025 ( 64 Days )
Type: Video

Le Poetesse: Transreading Contemporary Italian Verse

£130.00 *

Tutor: Rebecca Levi

Le Poetesse: Transreading Contemporary Italian Verse

Discover current Italian women poets writing beyond the traditional.

Start Date: January 21, 2025
End Date: April 1, 2025 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

Interdisciplinary & Translingual Explorations with Astrid Alben

£220.00 *

Tutor: Astrid Alben

Interdisciplinary & Translingual Explorations with Astrid Alben

An exciting, advanced poetry workshop with the innovative Astrid Alben.

Start Date: January 21, 2025
End Date: March 25, 2025 ( 64 Days )
Type: Video

Hymns to Life: Poetry, Documentary, & Time

Sold Out!

Tutor: Flo Reynolds

Hymns to Life: Poetry, Documentary, & Time

Capturing temporality in your own personal poetics.

Start Date: January 21, 2025
End Date: April 1, 2025 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

‘The Doors of Perception’: Pop Culture & Poetry

Sold Out!

Tutor: Leah Umansky

‘The Doors of Perception’: Pop Culture & Poetry

Explore new approaches in your writing through the lens of pop culture!

Start Date: January 22, 2025
End Date: April 2, 2025 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

Rachel Long’s Advanced Weekly Workshop with Special Guests

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Tutor: Rachel Long

Rachel Long’s Advanced Weekly Workshop with Special Guests

An exciting advanced workshop group with the much-loved Rachel Long and the benefit of special guest tutors each term.

Start Date: January 22, 2025
End Date: March 26, 2025 ( 64 Days )
Type: Video

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Mark Waldron

£220.00 *

Tutor: Mark Waldron

Advanced Poetry Workshop with Mark Waldron

An advanced weekly workshop group with the inimitable Mark Waldron.

Start Date: January 22, 2025
End Date: March 26, 2025 ( 64 Days )
Type: Video

Sold Out!

Tutor: Becky Varley-Winter

Poetic Forms for Beginners

Spark your creativity and take your first steps into the world of poetry!

Start Date: January 22, 2025
End Date: March 19, 2025 ( 57 Days )
Type: Video

Fortnightly Feedback with Jennifer Lee Tsai

£95.00 *

Tutor: Jennifer Lee Tsai

Fortnightly Feedback with Jennifer Lee Tsai

Knock loose poems into shape with some concentrated feedback from poet, critic, and teacher, Jennifer Lee Tsai.

Start Date: January 22, 2025
End Date: April 11, 2025 ( 80 Days )
Type: Online

Technique [How to Discover or Disown It] 2.0

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Tutor: Matthew Caley

Technique [How to Discover or Disown It] 2.0

What training do you do to sustain and maintain yourself as a poet? Explore the essential work of writerly ‘technique’, in an all new edition of this popular course.

Start Date: January 23, 2025 7–9pm
End Date: March 27, 2025 ( 64 Days )
Type: Video

Lighting the World: Writing in Times of Crisis

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Tutor: Shazea Quraishi

Lighting the World: Writing in Times of Crisis

How can we write poetry through times of ecological emergency, perpetual war, or personal crises?

Start Date: January 23, 2025
End Date: March 27, 2025 ( 64 Days )
Type: Video

Writing the City: Transreading Paris in the Springtime

£130.00 *

Tutor: Sue Burge

Writing the City: Transreading Paris in the Springtime

Parisienne pleasures - Paris as poetic muse.

Start Date: January 24, 2025
End Date: April 4, 2025 ( 71 Days )
Type: Online

Clarity & Vision: Advanced Poetry Workshop with Richard Price

£220.00 *

Tutor: Richard Price

Clarity & Vision: Advanced Poetry Workshop with Richard Price

Join this group for close discussion of your writing with acclaimed poet, Richard Price.

Start Date: January 24, 2025
End Date: March 28, 2025 ( 64 Days )
Type: Video

The Craft of Poetry: A Course for New Poets

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Tutor: Colin Bramwell

The Craft of Poetry: A Course for New Poets

Perfect your poetic practice (and get answers to questions you’ve been too afraid to ask!).

Start Date: January 25, 2025 10.30am – 12.30pm
End Date: April 5, 2025 ( 71 Days )
Type: Video

Sold Out!

Tutor: Becky Varley-Winter

Beginners’ Workshop Group

Join a supportive community for close reading and developmental feedback on your new poems!

Start Date: January 29, 2025
End Date: March 26, 2025 ( 57 Days )
Type: Video

Sold Out!

Tutor: Ros Barber

Saturday Sessions with Ros Barber

Monthly all-day Saturday workshops with Ros Barber.

Start Date: February 1, 2025 10.30am–4.30pm
End Date: April 5, 2025 ( 64 Days )
Type: In-person • Location:

£95.00 *

Tutor: Tice

Kiss Kiss Studio

It's all in a kiss! Join us for an intimate course with interdisciplinary artist and poet Tice Cin, exploring the kiss in poetry.

Start Date: February 3, 2025
End Date: March 3, 2025 ( 29 Days )
Type: Online

Sold Out!

Tutor: Jodie Hollander

Narrative Art: Poetic Storytelling

Structure storied poems and narrate like a natural.

Start Date: February 4, 2025
End Date: April 1, 2025 ( 57 Days )
Type: Video

Sold Out!

Tutor: Penny Boxall

‘True North’ Studio

What are we talking about when we talk about the North?

Start Date: February 4, 2025
End Date: March 3, 2025 ( 28 Days )
Type: Online

Sold Out!

Tutor: Giulia Ottavia Frattini

Poetry as Apocalypse in Language Studio

Unveiling the unseen for revelatory, experimental poetics.

Start Date: February 24, 2025
End Date: March 24, 2025 ( 29 Days )
Type: Online

£95.00 *

Tutor: Abbi Parcell

Women, Writing, & Place

Use your writing to explore personal identity and the intersections that shape us.

Start Date: March 1, 2025
End Date: March 15, 2025 ( 15 Days )
Type: Video

Conditions of Invisibility & Creation of the Self, after Gboyega Odubanjo

£80.00 *

Tutor: Rachel Long

Conditions of Invisibility & Creation of the Self, after Gboyega Odubanjo

Gboyega: Locating selfhood, seen-ness, and invisibility in Adam. Decent.

Start Date: March 11, 2025 6.30pm
End Date: March 25, 2025 ( 15 Days )
Type: Video

£95.00 *

Tutor: Becky Varley-Winter

Fragmentation: Making & Unmaking Poetry

Blow-up to glow-up; use non-traditional means to make magic fragmented poems.

Start Date: March 15, 2025 10.30am
End Date: March 15, 2025 ( 1 Day )
Type: In-person • Location: The Bindery, London

£95.00 *

Tutor: Katrina Naomi

What Makes a Collection?

From manuscript to collection – what to know as you prepare for submission.

Start Date: March 15, 2025 10.30am
End Date: March 15, 2025 ( 1 Day )
Type: In-person • Location: The Bindery, London

£55.00 *

Tutor: Eve Grubin

Writing What Can’t Be Said

Risk and reward – saying un-sayable things.

Start Date: March 20, 2025 2–4.30pm
End Date: March 20, 2025 ( 1 Day )
Type: Video

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How it works

The Poetry School’s teaching year runs over three ‘terms’ – Autumn, Spring and Summer. Each term we offer around 40-50 courses and workshops that cater to a variety of levels, varying in length and subject matter. The course programme changes every term with more new courses, workshops and tutors, but often includes courses that run over three terms and popular repeats.

We offer both ‘classroom’ teaching (UK) and ‘virtual’ teaching (international). You can visit our In-Person Courses, Video Courses and Online Courses pages for more detailed information about course structures, process and what to expect.

Finding the right Course

Most of our courses and workshops accommodate writers with a wide range of experience, but some are specifically designed for beginners or more practicised poets.

Here are our definitions:

Beginner – Learning the ropes: beginning to write poetry.
Intermediate – Starting to develop your voice, generate more work and grow confident on the page.
Advanced – Able to confidently edit, hone, discuss and critique your poetry.

Our programme is developed around these three teaching levels, although we also offer many courses that are Open to all – courses aimed at all levels, often focusing on a specific theme or inspirational subject matter.

FAQ

How many courses can I take?

To ensure the best experience, we recommend taking no more than two courses per term. If you are interested in signing up to more, please email us at [email protected] to discuss the different course schedules.

What is poetry?

There is no one answer, and many, many people have their own ideas. Here are some definitions we like:

‘Literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm’ – OED

‘Poetry is a heightened imagistic use of language that does things to the heart and head’ – Grace Nichols

‘A made thing, a verbal construct, an event in language’ – Edward Hirsch

‘Poetry is memorable speech’ – W H Auden

‘Poetry does not explain life. It gives life to feeling and seeing’ – Sarah Stetie

‘Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not’ – Samuel Johnson

I’m already publishing and performing poetry – what can you do to help me?

We have an expanding programme of projects and activities which seek to address the continuing professional development needs of practising poets, from residencies to enhanced publishing, editing and performance opportunities and beyond. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest details.

Will the Poetry School help me become a poet?

Since 1997, when the Poetry School was founded, our students have gone on to publish in magazines and online; they've produced pamphlets and books as poets and editors with publishers from the smallest independents to the largest commercial houses; they've won multiple prizes and awards; they've become poetry tutors themselves; they've moved on to take poetry MAs and PhDs.; they’ve set up performance nights, magazines, shows and events. While we can't guarantee that all students will go on to get published; serious engagement with the art and craft of poetry in the company of tutors and fellow students who are as passionate about the form as you are can only ever improve your chances of getting your work out to a wider audience.

Join us in reading, writing, editing and translating poetry, in year-long courses, short courses, workshops, one-day sessions, seminars, tutorials and every variety of learning in between – in our classrooms, off site and online.

All our Courses

Find a Course

How it works

Finding the right Course

FAQ

How many courses can I take?

What is poetry?

I’m already publishing and performing poetry – what can you do to help me?

Will the Poetry School help me become a poet?